Customized Platform for Host Protection in Home Sharing

ABSTRACT

An insurance system for home sharing may comprise a mobile device of a homeowner, one or more databases storing insurance factor data, a plurality of sensors configured to monitor one or more home features, and a server comprising one or more processors and memory. The server may be configured to receive, from the mobile device, data indicating that the homeowner is renting out a home, determine a value for frequency of rentals for the home based on the data indicating that the homeowner is renting out the home, and receive, from the plurality of sensors, monitored data for the one or more home features. The server may compute an insurance premium for the homeowner based on the value for frequency of rentals for the home, the monitored data for the one or more home features, and the insurance factor data and transmit the insurance premium to the mobile device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser.No. 15/237,197, filed Aug. 15, 2016, now allowed, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Insurance companies or providers may offer various services tocustomers, including offering auto insurance, health insurance, businessinsurance, home insurance, and more. In particular, insurance providersmay offer home insurance to homeowners to cover costs and protect homesfrom damage during unexpected disasters. Home insurance may allowcustomers to lower costs associated with repairing, replacing, orrenovating one or more features of a home. For example, insuranceproviders may cover weather-related damage to a home, such as haildamage, tornado damage, earthquake damage, hurricane damage, and damageassociated with other catastrophes.

While home insurance offered by insurance providers may cover a host ofpotential perils that may occur, home insurance might not typicallycover damages associated with homeowners who may rent out their homes toother individuals. For example, homeowners may rent out all or a part oftheir homes as vacation rentals to individuals such as travelers lookingfor comfortable lodging during travel. In another example, homeownersmay rent out all or a part of their homes to one or more individualslooking for short-term housing in a new city. By renting out theirproperties, homeowners may benefit by earning revenue that may be usefulfor other needs, such as for paying off home mortgages.

Despite the benefits of homeowners' renting out their properties,homeowners may be liable for any damages incurred by short-term rentersduring the rental period. For example, homeowners may be victim totheft, damages to personal property, or loss in funds due tocancellation by renters. Conventional insurance systems might notaccount for such renter-related perils, resulting in losses forhomeowners.

As such, new systems, methods, and devices may be desired to assist inenhancing various processes for insurance providers in order to provideadequate and accurate insurance coverage for homeowners renting outtheir homes.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In light of the foregoing background, the following presents asimplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not anextensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify keyor critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of theinvention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of theinvention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription provided below.

Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentionedabove by disclosing computerized methods, systems, devices, andapparatuses for a customized platform for protecting homeownersparticipating in home sharing. The systems and arrangements disclosedherein may allow insurance providers to protect and enhance insurancecoverage options for homeowners renting out their homes to individualswith little or no additional risk of personal financial loss orout-of-pocket costs resulting from renter damages.

The disclosure describes a system comprising a mobile device of ahomeowner, one or more databases storing data regarding insurancefactors for the homeowner, a plurality of sensors configured to monitorone or more features of a home, a network, and a server, comprisinghardware including one or more processors and memory. The server may beconfigured to receive, from the mobile device and over the network, dataindicating that the homeowner is renting out the home to one or moreindividuals, determine, by the one or more processors, a value forfrequency of rentals for the home based on the data indicating that thehomeowner is renting out the home, receive, from the plurality ofsensors and over the network, monitored data for the one or morefeatures of home, compute, by the one or more processors, an insurancepremium for the homeowner based on the value for frequency of rentalsfor the home, the monitored data for the one or more features of thehome, and the data regarding the insurance factors for the homeowner,and transmit the insurance premium for the homeowner to the mobiledevice.

The system may also further comprise a first computing device and asecond computing device each configured to capture a first plurality ofphotos and a second plurality of photos, respectively, of the one ormore features of the home, in which the server may further be configuredto receive, from the first computing device, the first plurality ofphotos of the one or more features of the home, store the firstplurality of photos of the one or more features of the home in thememory, receive, from the second computing device, the second pluralityof photos of the one or more features of the home after a rental periodhas occurred, wherein the first plurality of photos and the secondplurality of photos are different, compare, by the one or moreprocessors, the first plurality of photos stored in the memory with thesecond plurality of photos to identify damages to the one or morefeatures of the home, initiate, by the one or more processors, aninsurance claim for the identified damages to the one or more featuresof the home, compute, by the one or more processors, an amount for theinsurance claim for the identified damages to the one or more featuresof the home, and transmit, by the one or more processors and to themobile device, a notification of the amount for the insurance claim forthe identified damages to the one or more features of the home.

The disclosure also describes an apparatus comprising at least oneprocessor, a network interface configured to communicate, via a network,with one or more computing devices, and a memory storingcomputer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the apparatus to receive, from a mobile device of ahomeowner, data indicating that the homeowner is renting out the home toone or more individuals, determine, by the one or more computingdevices, a value of frequency of rentals for the home based on the dataindicating that the homeowner is renting out the home, receive monitoreddata for one or more features of the home from a plurality of sensors inthe home, compute, by the one or more computing devices, an insurancepremium for the homeowner based on the value for frequency of rentalsfor the home, the monitored data for the one or more features of thehome, and data regarding insurance factors for the homeowner, andtransmit the insurance premium for the homeowner to the mobile device.

In addition, aspects of this disclosure provide a method that includesreceiving, from a mobile device and over a network, data indicating thatthe homeowner is renting out the home to one or more individuals,determining, by one or more computing devices, a value for frequency ofrentals for the home based on the data indicating that the homeowner isrenting out the home, receiving, from a plurality of sensors in thehome, monitored data for one or more features of the home, wherein theone or more features of the home comprise insured items of the home andrepresent personal property of the homeowner, computing, by the one ormore computing devices, an insurance premium for the homeowner based onthe value for frequency of rentals for the home, the monitored data forthe one or more features of the home, and data regarding insurancefactors for the homeowner, and transmitting, by the one or morecomputing devices, the insurance premium for the homeowner to the mobiledevice.

Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodimentsmay also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executableinstructions or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, otherembodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details ofthese and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features andadvantages of the invention will be apparent from the description,drawings, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and is notlimited by, the accompanying figures in which like reference numeralsindicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an example home sharing insurancedevice that may be used in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments.

FIG. 2 depicts an example network environment in which various aspectsof the present disclosure may be implemented in accordance with one ormore example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of example method steps in accordance withone or more example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of example method steps in accordance withone or more example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, computerizedmethods, systems, devices, and apparatuses are disclosed that provide acustomized computing platform for protecting homeowners participating inhome sharing. As described herein, “home sharing” may refer to ahomeowner renting out or “sharing” his or her home with an individual ora group of individuals for a period of time. Homeowners may rent outtheir homes for any period of time, including short-term and long-termrentals. For example, a rental period may be for one or two days, fivedays, a week, two weeks, a month, half a year, or any otherpredetermined period of time. In some cases, homeowners may be referredto as hosts who offer their properties to renters looking for affordablehousing.

Homeowners who rent out their properties to others may often leave theirbelongings, such as clothes, furniture, housewares, and the like, in thehome while the property is being rented. In such cases, these items thatbelong to the homeowner, as well as the structure itself, may besusceptible to damage by renters staying at the home during a rentalperiod. In some embodiments, these items of the home may be referred toas one or more features of the home or personal property of thehomeowner. For example, personal property may include items such asclothes, jewelry, lawn mowers, sports equipment, cameras, televisions,laptops, and the like.

In particular, the present disclosure teaches a customized insurancesystem that may be beneficial for homeowners in that the system maydetermine insurance premiums and/or insurance deductibles for providingcoverage to homeowners for renter-related damages to personal propertyand insured items of the homeowner based on the frequency of rentals fora home, monitored data obtained from connected home sensors in the home,and data regarding insurance factors for the homeowner. The customizedinsurance system described herein may be integrated across a pluralityof platforms and may be employed by, for instance, an insurance companythat offers home insurance and home sharing benefits or services tohomeowners (e.g., insurance policy holders). In some cases, the featuresor benefits described herein may be purchased by the homeowner as arider (e.g., an unscheduled rider) in addition to a home insurancepolicy provided by the insurance company. In other words, the insurancecompany may offer home sharing insurance benefits or services tohomeowners who are insurance policy holders with registered accounts, inwhich the homeowners may have purchased a rider and opted in for thehome sharing insurance service or program.

In some embodiments, the customized insurance system may determineinsurance premiums for a homeowner based on data collected from aplurality of connected home sensors in a home. For example, one or moresensors associated with one or more home devices, such as appliances,home systems, and the like, may monitor home devices and collect dataincluding metrics, levels, and/or values indicating performance andquality of the one or more features of the home, in which the one ormore features may include insured items of the home and representpersonal property of the homeowner. The one or more sensors may includeat least one of motion sensors, water heater sensors, power sensors,moisture sensors, temperature sensors, window sensors, sump pumpsensors, heat or smoke sensing devices, and presence sensors. In somecases, the connected home sensors may collect data in real-time or nearreal-time. Additionally or alternatively, the monitored data may becollected and/or transmitted to the insurance system in batches. Themonitored data from the plurality of connected home sensors may indicatewhether devices in the home are operating within an expected range or,if it is outside of an expected range or threshold, whether damage hasoccurred to one or more devices. Based on changes and trends in themonitored data from the home sensors, the customized insurance systemmay determine pricing for insurance premiums for homeowners renting outtheir homes.

The system may also incorporate traditional insurance factors for theinsurance premium calculation, in which the insurance factors mayinclude data regarding age, gender and number of years the homeowner hasowned the home, credit history, condition, materials and age of thehome, location of the home, and the like. Additionally, the customizedinsurance system may determine insurance premiums for a homeowner basedon the frequency of rentals for a home. The system may determine a valuefor the frequency of rentals for a home based on receiving dataindicating that a homeowner is renting out his or her home. For example,the homeowner may obtain documentation, such as at least one of abooking confirmation, a rental contract, or a receipt indicating thatone or more individuals are renting the home. The homeowner may uploadthe documentation to the insurance system by using a computing deviceand/or a mobile device, in which the documentation may be in the form ofan email, text message, multimedia message, scanned document,photograph, or the like. Ultimately, the system may collectdocumentation from a computing device associated with the homeowner eachtime the home is rented out over a period of time, and based on thisdocumentation, the system may determine a value for the frequency ofrentals by calculating the number of rentals for the home on a weekly,monthly, or yearly basis.

In addition to calculating insurance premiums for home sharing coverage,the customized insurance system may also assess any damage to one ormore items in the homeowner's home and handle insurance claims forrenter-related damages in the home. In some cases, the customizedinsurance system may be integrated with a plurality of databasesconfigured to store data regarding the one or more features of the home.As described herein, the plurality of databases may be referred to as a“digital repository” storing data and/or images of insured itemsbelonging to insurance customers (e.g., homeowners). The digitalrepository may comprise an inventory of insured items corresponding toeach insurance customer and may include photographs, receipts, andpricing for each insured item. In some embodiments, a homeowner maycapture one or more photos of items in his or her home with a camera(e.g., a camera on a mobile device) prior to renting out the home to oneor more individuals, and the one or more photos may be transmitted to adigital repository and stored therein.

After renting out the home, the homeowner may employ a cleaning serviceto clean and maintain the property for future rentals. In order toassess damages, one or more new photos of the items in the home may becaptured by the homeowner or by employees of the cleaning service usinga camera, such as a camera on a mobile device. The mobile device maytransmit the one or more new photos of the items to the customizedinsurance system, and the insurance system may compare the one or morenew photos of the items obtained after the rental period with the one ormore photos of the items obtained from the digital repository. Forexample, the insurance system may utilize the photos stored in thedigital repository as a baseline for determining any damages to thehomeowner's items. Furthermore, the insurance system may utilize digitalimage processing algorithms and image analysis algorithms to detectdifferences between the photos depicting the items and to identify anydamages. Upon identifying any damages to the one or more items of thehome, the insurance system may initiate an insurance claim for theidentified damages to the one or more items of the home, compute anamount corresponding to the insurance claim, and transmit a notificationregarding the amount for the insurance claim for the identified damagesto the one or more items in the homeowner's home.

Ultimately, the customized home insurance system described herein mayprovide benefits to homeowners, including enhanced insurance coverageand protection for renter-related damages, as well as improvements inidentifying damages in an efficient manner by utilizing the features ofa digital repository.

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and inwhich is shown by way of illustration, various embodiments of thedisclosure that may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized. A person of ordinary skill in the art afterreading the following disclosure will appreciate that the variousaspects described herein may be embodied as a computerized method,system, device, or apparatus utilizing one or more computer programproducts. Accordingly, various aspects of the computerized methods,systems, devices, and apparatuses may take the form of an entirelyhardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodimentcombining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, various aspects ofthe computerized methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses may take theform of a computer program product stored by one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media having computer-readable program code,or instructions, embodied in or on the storage media. Any suitablecomputer readable storage media may be utilized, including hard disks,CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or anycombination thereof. In addition, various signals representing data orevents as described herein may be transferred between a source and adestination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling throughsignal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/orwireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space). It is noted thatvarious connections between elements are discussed in the followingdescription. It is noted that these connections are general and, unlessspecified otherwise, may be direct or indirect, wired or wireless, andthat the specification is not intended to be limiting in this respect.

In one or more arrangements, teachings of the present disclosure may beimplemented with a computing device. FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagramof an example home sharing insurance device 100 that may be used inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The home sharinginsurance device 100 may be a specialized computing device programmedand/or configured to perform and carry out aspects associated withdetermining pricing for insuring properties while being rented out toone or more individuals by homeowners and/or for identifying any damagesto personal property of the homeowners as described herein. The homesharing insurance device 100 may have a home sharing insurance manager101 configured to perform methods and execute instructions as describedherein. The home sharing insurance manager 101 may be implemented withone or more specially configured processors and one or more storageunits (e.g., databases, RAM, ROM, and other computer-readable media),one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/orother hardware components. Throughout this disclosure, the home sharinginsurance manager 101 may refer to the software (e.g., a computerprogram or application) and/or hardware used to receive data indicatingthat a homeowner is renting out a home to one or more individuals,determine a value for frequency of rentals for the home based on thedata indicating that the homeowner is renting out the home, receivemonitored data for one or more features of the home from a plurality ofconnected home sensors, compute an insurance premium for the homeownerbased on the value for frequency of rentals for the home, the monitoreddata for the one or more features of the home, and data regardinginsurance factors for the homeowner, and transmit the insurance premiumfor the homeowner to a mobile device of the homeowner. Furthermore, thehome sharing insurance manager 101 may include software and/or hardwareused to receive a plurality of photos of the one or more features of ahome, store the plurality of photos in one or more databases, comparephotos before and after rental periods have occurred to identify damagesto one or more features in the home, initiate an insurance claims foridentified damages, compute an amount for the insurance claim foridentified damages, and transmit notifications for the insurance claimand the amount to a mobile device of the homeowner. Specifically, thehome sharing insurance manager 101 may be a part of a home insurancesystem that determines insurance premiums for covering a homeowner'shome while being rented, identifies damages to one or more features inthe home, initiates insurance claims for damages, and/or computesamounts for insurance claims.

The one or more specially configured processors of the home sharinginsurance manager 101 may operate in addition to or in conjunction withanother processor 103 of the home sharing insurance device 100. In someexamples, the home sharing insurance manager 101 may be a deviceincluding hardware and/or software configured to perform variousfunctions. In some embodiments, the home sharing insurance manager 101may be a software module executed by one or more processors 103. Boththe home sharing insurance manager 101 and the processor 103 may becapable of controlling operations of the home sharing insurance device100 and its associated components, including RAM 105, ROM 107, aninput/output (I/O) module 109, a network interface 111, and memory 113.

The I/O module 109 may be configured to be connected to an input device115, such as a microphone, keypad, keyboard, touchscreen, gesture orother sensors, and/or stylus through which a user or insured individualassociated with the home sharing insurance device 100 may provide inputdata. The I/O module 109 may be configured to be connected to a displaydevice 117, such as a monitor, television, touchscreen, and the like,and may include a graphics card. The display device 117 and input device115 are shown as separate elements from the home sharing insurancedevice 100, however, they may be within the same structure.

Using the input device 115, system administrators may update variousaspects of the home sharing insurance system, such as rules orinformation related to identifying when homeowners are renting out theirhomes, determining frequency of rentals for homeowners, determininginsurance premiums and/or deductibles for homeowners, comparing photosof insured items to identify damages, initiating insurance claims, andcomputing amounts for insurance claims for identified damages to one ormore insured items of homes. For example, system administrators mayupdate predefined rules and predefined threshold values for pricingdeductibles and insurance premiums and identifying damages to insureditems. In some cases, system administrators may update values of one ormore metrics associated with home insurance claim processing rules usingthe input device 115 to update rules or information related to the homesharing insurance system, such as rules for pricing deductibles for homesharing insurance, predetermined levels or thresholds for assessingdamage, and the like. In other embodiments, the home sharing insurancesystem may be configured to automatically update rules for determiningfrequency of rentals for homes and identifying monitored data for one ormore features of a home, in which the one or more features may includeinsured items in the home and personal property of the homeowner.

On some home sharing insurance devices 100, the input device 115 may beoperated by users (e.g., homeowners insured by an insurance company) tointeract with the home sharing insurance platform, including submittingimages, information and/or documentation (e.g., receipts, bookingconfirmations, rental contracts, emails, text messages, multimediamessages, scanned documents, photographs, or the like) regarding rentingtheir home to one or more individuals, receiving and/or providinginformation regarding insurance premiums/deductibles, insurance claims,amounts for insurance claims, settlements, contact information, and thelike, as described herein.

The memory 113 may be any computer readable medium for storing computerexecutable instructions (e.g., software). The instructions stored withinmemory 113 may enable the home sharing insurance device 100 to performvarious functions. For example, memory 113 may store software used bythe home sharing insurance device 100, such as an operating system 119and application programs 121, and may include an associated database123.

The network interface 111 allows the home sharing insurance device 100to connect to and communicate with a network 130. The network 130 may beany type of network, including a local area network (LAN) and/or a widearea network (WAN), such as the Internet. Through the network 130, thehome sharing insurance device 100 may communicate with one or morecomputing devices 140, such as laptops, notebooks, smartphones, personalcomputers, servers, and the like. The computing devices 140 may includeat least some of the same components as home sharing insurance device100. In some embodiments the home sharing insurance device 100 may beconnected to the computing devices 140 to form a “cloud” computingenvironment.

The network interface 111 may connect to the network 130 viacommunication lines, such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, and thelike or wirelessly using a cellular backhaul or a wireless standard,such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, and the like. In someembodiments, the network interface 111 may include a modem. Further, thenetwork interface 111 may use various protocols, including TCP/IP,Ethernet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP), and the like, to communicate with other computing devices 140.

FIG. 1 is an example embodiment of a home sharing insurance device 100.In other embodiments, the home sharing insurance device 100 may includefewer or more elements. For example, the home sharing insurance device100 may use the processor(s) 103 to perform functions of the homesharing insurance manager 101, and thus, might not include a separateprocessor or hardware for the home sharing insurance manager 101.Additionally, or alternatively, the home sharing insurance device 100may be a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, and the like)specially configured to perform or carry out aspects of services and/orprocesses described herein, and thus, may also include various othercomponents, such as a battery, speaker, camera, and/or antennas (notshown).

The computerized methods for determining insurance premiums forhomeowners participating in home sharing, identifying damages to insureditems in homes, and computing amounts for insurance claims based ondamages as disclosed herein may be implemented on one or more homesharing insurance devices 100 used in various network environments. FIG.2 illustrates an example network environment for implementing methods inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 2, the network environment 200 may include a network201 configured to connect a home sharing insurance system 202, homesharing insurance device 212, connected home sensors 210, and/or amobile device 220. The home sharing insurance device 212 may be the sameas or at least similar to the home sharing insurance device 100described above with reference to FIG. 1. Collectively, thesespecialized computing devices may form at least a part of a home sharinginsurance system. It is understood that there may be any number ofcomponents 210, 212, and 220 in the network environment 200. In at leastsome arrangements, the system may be expandable such that additionalcomputing devices associated with other types of entities may beconnected, as desired.

The network 201 may be any type of network, like the network 130described above, and may use one or more communication protocols (e.g.,protocols for the Internet (IP), Bluetooth, cellular communications,satellite communications, and the like) to connect computing devices andservers within the network environment 200 so they may send and receivecommunications between each other. In particular, the network 201 mayinclude a cellular network and its components, such as cell towers.

Accordingly, for example, a mobile device 220 (e.g., a smartphone,flip-phone, tablet, and the like) or a home sharing insurance device 212of an insured individual (e.g., a homeowner) may communicate, via acellular backhaul of the network 201, with a home sharing insurancesystem 202 to transmit information regarding renting out a home to oneor more individuals as part of the home sharing insurance service. Forexample, a homeowner may use the mobile device 220 or the home sharinginsurance device 212 to submit information such as documentation in theform of an email, text message, multimedia message, scanned document,photograph, or the like to the home sharing insurance system 202 toindicate that the homeowner is renting out his or her home for apredetermined period of time. In some embodiments, the mobile device 220or the home sharing insurance device 212 of the homeowner maycommunicate, via the cellular backhaul of the network 201, with the homesharing insurance system 202 to submit customer information, homeinformation or to update account information and/or preferences for thehome sharing insurance service.

In the opposite direction, the home sharing insurance system 202 maycommunicate, via the cellular backhaul of the network 201, with themobile device 220 or the home sharing insurance device 212 to notify theuser (e.g., the homeowner) of the mobile device 220 or the home sharinginsurance device 212 of insurance premiums and/or deductibles for homesharing determined based on frequency of rentals for the home, monitoreddata for the one or more home features, and insurance factor data forthe homeowner, as well as insurance claim information and coverageamounts. In some embodiments, the mobile device 220 and/or home sharinginsurance device 212 may communicate back and forth with the homesharing insurance system 202 over the Internet, such as through a webportal.

Additionally, the home sharing insurance system 202 may furthercommunicate with a plurality of connected home sensors 210. For example,the home depicted in FIG. 2 may include a plurality of appliances and/orsystems and one or more of the appliances and/or systems (e.g., devices)may be monitored by a plurality of connected home sensors 210 (e.g., oneor more sensing devices), as will be described more fully below. Theplurality of connected home sensors 210 may monitor one or more featuresin a home and transmit monitored data to the home sharing insurancesystem 202 over the network 201. For example, a home may generallyinclude a variety of systems, appliances, and the like that may bemonitored by the plurality of connected home sensors 210. The pluralityof connected home sensors 210 may include one or more sensors or sensingdevices which may be arranged on or integrated into devices such as hotwater heaters, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, furnaces, airconditioning units, windows (e.g., to detect breakage), pipes (e.g., todetect leakage), utilities or utility meters, such as gas, water, andelectric, and the like. For example, the plurality of connected homesensors 210 may include at least one of motion sensors, water heatersensors, power sensors, moisture sensors, temperature sensors, windowsensors, sump pump sensors, heat or smoking sensing devices, presencesensors, float sensors, speed sensors, breakage sensors, cameras,proximity sensors, and the like.

The connected home sensors 210 may include devices for sensingtemperature, sewage backup, natural gas, propane, etc., air quality(e.g., carbon monoxide, etc.), air flow quality, water flow, and thelike. Additionally, the connected home sensors 210 may include one ormore video monitoring devices such as security or other video cameras,live video feeds, and the like, that may receive and/or transmit videoor other image data related to one or more appliances, systems, etc. Insome examples, devices providing video monitoring or video feed may bemonitoring the premises on a periodic or continuous basis. In somearrangements, the devices providing video monitoring or video feed maybe in communication with one or more other sensing devices and mayactivate or begin monitoring, providing video feed, etc. upon anindication received from the one or more other sensing devices. In otherexamples, the plurality of connected home sensors 210 may includesensors or other monitoring devices that may be arranged on orintegrated into paint, bricks or other building materials, and the like.In yet additional examples, the plurality of connected home sensors 210may include “smart” materials, such as smart paints, smart bricks, andthe like, that may provide indications of wear or potential failure.

In some arrangements, the plurality of connected home sensors 210 may beconnected to or in communication with one or more home devices, such asappliances, systems, etc., to monitor one or more characteristics of thehome device. For instance, home devices or systems such as a waterheater, sump pump, roof, attic (e.g., air flow in attic), washingmachine, dryer, refrigerator, freezer, air conditioner, furnace,windows, pipes, occupancy, and the like, may be monitored. Various otherappliances and/or systems may be monitored without departing from theinvention.

The plurality of connected home sensors 210 may monitor various insureditems in the home, and signals from the one or more connected homesensors 210 may be transmitted to the home sharing insurance system 202.In some examples, the signals may be transmitted to the home sharinginsurance system 202 over the network 201, e.g., via wired or wirelessmeans. In some arrangements, the data may be collected in real-timeand/or transmitted in real-time or near real-time. Additionally oralternatively, the data may be collected and/or transmitted in batches.

Although FIG. 2 illustrates only one home sharing insurance device 212and one mobile device 220, the home sharing insurance system 202 may beconfigured to communicate with multiple home sharing insurance devices212 and mobile devices 220 simultaneously (e.g., at or around the sametime), and the multiple home sharing insurance devices 212 and mobiledevices 220 may be associated with multiple individuals. For example,the home sharing insurance system 202 may receive multiple notificationssimultaneously indicating that multiple homeowners are renting out theirhomes, determine frequency of rentals for each home of the multiplehomeowners simultaneously, receive monitored data for one or morefeatures from connected home sensors in each home simultaneously,compute insurance premiums based on respective frequency of rentalvalues, monitored connected home sensor data, and/or insurance factordata for each homeowner simultaneously, and notify each homeowner ofrespective insurance premiums simultaneously.

In some embodiments, there may be one or more users or customersassociated with a home. For example, a user may be associated with ahome if he or she owns the home or if he or she is identified on aninsurance policy that insures the home. In some embodiments, a userassociated with the home may be uninsured or an insurance policy holder.A user may interact with and operate a home sharing insurance device 212to access the home sharing insurance system 202. In some embodiments,the home sharing insurance device 212 may be a specialized mobile device(e.g., mobile phone), a tablet, laptop, personal computer, and the likeconfigured to perform or carry out aspects associated with home sharinginsurance services as described herein. For example, the home sharinginsurance device 212 may be the same (e.g., integrated with, includesubstantially the same components and provide substantially the samefunctionality, or the like) as the mobile device 220 depicted in FIG. 2.The home sharing insurance device 212 may belong to a customer of aninsurance provider who is enrolled in a home sharing insurance serviceprovided by the insurance provider. In some cases, the home sharinginsurance device 212 may be at an insurance provider, and data may betransmitted between the customer and the home sharing insurance device212.

Although only one home sharing insurance device 212 is illustrated inFIG. 2, there may be any number of home sharing insurance devices 212,wherein each home sharing insurance device 212 is associated with atleast one customer. The home sharing insurance device 212 may furthercomprise an insurance manager 213, a display 214, and sensors 215. Thehome sharing insurance device 212 may be configured to execute theinsurance manager 213 that generates and/or displays a user interface(e.g., a graphical user interface for a website, application, softwareprogram, and the like) on the display 214. The display 214 may comprisea monitor, television, touchscreen, and the like. The user interface ofthe insurance manager 213 may allow users to send requests forinformation on home sharing, submit documentation or bookingconfirmations for home rentals, receive information regarding customizedinsurance premiums, deductibles, discounts, incentives, insuranceclaims, damages, compensations, settlement offers, and the like,communicate with an insurance agent, and update account information orpreferences for services provided by the home sharing insurance system202.

The insurance manager 213 may be a self-sufficient program or may be amodule of another program, such as a program used to collect and/orevaluate insurance information utilized by the home sharing insurancesystem 202. The insurance manager 213 may have access to data that maybe collected and/or stored by the home sharing insurance system 202,such as insurance information, customer information, monitored data(e.g., collected from the plurality of connected home sensors 210), andthe like. For example, the insurance manager 213 may use this collecteddata to compute insurance premiums and/or deductibles and to providenotifications to users accordingly. In some embodiments, the insurancemanager 213 may be configured in a similar manner as the home sharinginsurance manager 101 or configured to perform similar functions asthose performed by the home sharing insurance manager 101.

In some embodiments, the insurance manager 213 may be downloaded orotherwise installed onto the home sharing insurance device 212 usingknown methods. Different devices may install different versions of theinsurance manager 213 depending on their platform. A user may launch theinsurance manager 213 by, for example, operating buttons or atouchscreen on the home sharing insurance device 212. Additionally, oralternatively, the insurance device 212 may be configured to execute aweb browser (e.g., an application for accessing and navigating theInternet) to access a web page providing an interface for the homesharing insurance system. In some embodiments, the home sharinginsurance device 212 may also be configured to collect information, suchas customer information. For example, the insurance manager 213 oranother program installed on the home sharing insurance device 212 mayinstruct the home sharing insurance device 212 to collect customer data,such as a location of the customer, using the sensors 215, which mayinclude a GPS.

The sensors 215 in the home sharing insurance device 212 may includevarious components, such as a GPS, camera, and the like. For example,the camera in the home sharing insurance device 212 may be utilized tocapture one or more photos of insured items in a home, and the one ormore photos may be utilized by the home sharing insurance system 202 toidentify damages to any items in the homeowner's home after a rentalperiod has occurred or after a predetermined time period has expired.Once the one or more images of the items have been collected, theinsurance manager 213 may be configured to send the collected one ormore images to the home sharing insurance system 202 instantaneously,automatically, or at a later time.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a mobile device 220 which may be any mobiledevice associated with a user or customer associated with a home. Inparticular, the mobile device 220 may belong to a customer of aninsurance provider, in which the customer is enrolled in a service thatallows the customer to participate in and receive home sharing insuranceservices. Mobile device 220 may be, for example, a smartphone or othermobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet computer, and thelike, and may include some or all of the elements described above withrespect to the home sharing insurance manager 101. In some cases, themobile device 220 may be configured similarly to the home sharinginsurance device 212 and may interface or communicate with the homesharing insurance system 202 via a wireless connection (e.g., Bluetoothor other) over the network 201. The mobile device 220 may furtherinclude one or more sensors 225, such as a GPS, camera, and the like.For example, the camera in the mobile device 220 may be utilized tocapture one or more photos of insured items in a home, and the one ormore photos may be utilized by the home sharing insurance system 202 toidentify damages to any items in the homeowner's home after a rentalperiod has occurred or after a predetermined period of time has expired.

In additional embodiments, the mobile device 220 and/or the home sharinginsurance device 212 may be utilized by one or more users who are nothomeowners. For example, an insurance provider may partner with one ormore cleaning services or providers to offer incentives or discounts tohomeowners who are participating in home sharing and renting out theirhomes to others. A homeowner may hire one or more cleaning services toclean his or her home after renting out a property and to maintain hisor her home for future rentals. Prior to cleaning, employees of acleaning service may utilize the mobile device 220 and/or the homesharing insurance device 212 to capture photos of one or more items inthe home using cameras on the devices (e.g., sensors 225 or sensors215). The photos may be transmitted from the mobile device 220 and/orthe home sharing insurance device 212 to the home sharing insurancesystem 202 in order to assess for damages to any of the items in thehome.

Furthermore, the home sharing insurance system 202 may comprise a homesharing insurance subsystem 203 and a plurality of databases 206. Thehome sharing insurance subsystem 203 may include one or more applicationservers, computing devices, and other equipment (e.g., conference bridgeequipment) used by entity (e.g., insurance provider) personnel toimplement and provide the home sharing insurance services describedherein. For example, the home sharing insurance subsystem 203 mayinclude a calculation module 205 (e.g., which may be a part of acustomized computing platform for home sharing) that is configured withprogrammed instructions (e.g., statistical learning algorithms,premium/deductible calculation algorithms, and the like) to determine avalue for frequency of rentals for a home based on data indicating thata homeowner is renting out the home, analyze monitored data receivedfrom the plurality of connected home sensors 210 for one or morefeatures of a home, and compute an insurance premium for a homeownerbased on the value for frequency of rentals for the home, the monitoreddata, and insurance factor data for the homeowner. In some embodiments,the calculation module 205 may apply predefined threshold values andfilters to the monitored data from the plurality of connected homesensors 210 to identify whether devices in the home are operating withinan expected range or, if it is outside of an expected range orthreshold, whether damage has occurred to one or more devices. Thecalculation module 205 may access and parse these predefined thresholdvalues and metrics which may be stored in one or more databases (such asdatabases 206).

Additionally, the calculation module 205 may also utilize digital imageprocessing algorithms and/or image analysis algorithms to detectdifferences between photos depicting insured items in the home and toidentify any damages to insured items after the home is rented out totenants. For example, the calculation module 205 may compare two sets ofphotos (e.g., one set of photos prior to rental and a second set ofphotos after rental) to identify damages in the second set of photos. Insome embodiments, the calculation module 205 may identify one or moredamaged portions in the photos in the second set and may crop orotherwise modify the photos such that only the one or more damagedportions of the photos are saved, transmitted, and/or used forprocessing insurance claims. By saving and/or utilizing just theportions of the photos that depict the damages, the home sharinginsurance system 202 may be able to save storage space as needed forstoring the photos. Furthermore, the calculation module 205 may beconfigured with programmed instructions to initiate insurance claims foridentified damages to one or more items in a home and compute amountsfor insurance claims for covering the identified damages to the one ormore items. The home sharing insurance subsystem 203 may also include aninventory module 207 which may be configured with one or more rules andlogic for analyzing a plurality of photos of insured items, maintaininginformation regarding insured items, and assessing damages to insureditems.

In some embodiments, the inventory module 207 may access and maintaininformation stored in one or more databases 206. For example, theinventory module 207 may maintain and parse data stored in the one ormore databases 206 which may include inventory information of insureditems for a plurality of homeowners insured by an insurance provider. Insome embodiments, the one or more databases 206 may be referred to as a“digital repository.” For example, the one or more databases 206 maystore photographs, receipts, and pricing for each insured itemcorresponding to each homeowner insured by the insurance provider.

The home sharing insurance subsystem 203 may include functionality thatmay be distributed among a plurality of computing devices. For example,the home sharing insurance subsystem 203 may comprise furthersubsystems, including client-side subsystems and server-side subsystems.The client-side subsystem may interface with the home sharing insurancedevice 212 for each homeowner or user, mobile device 220 for eachhomeowner or user, and/or the plurality of connected home sensors 220,whereas the server-side subsystem may interface with application serversand computing devices which handle a variety of tasks related todetermining insurance premiums and/or deductibles for home sharinginsurance and for identifying and compensating for renter-relateddamages.

The subsystems, application servers, and computing devices of the homesharing insurance subsystem 203 may also have access to the plurality ofdatabases 206. In some embodiments, the plurality of databases 206 maybe incorporated into the home sharing insurance subsystem 203 or may beseparate components in the home sharing insurance subsystem 203. As anexample, the plurality of databases 206 (e.g., databases 206 a—206 n)may comprise an inventory of insured items for a plurality of homeowners(e.g., including a plurality of photos for each insured item in eachinsured home), monitored data obtained from connected home sensors 210for each insured home, insurance factor information for the plurality ofhomeowners, insurance policy and claims data for the plurality ofhomeowners, accounts and billing information for the plurality ofhomeowners, and the like. In some cases, a database 206 may comprise acomputer internal to an insurance company that contains customer policyinformation. A database 206 may also contain policy information for aplurality of homeowners, including but not limited to, each homeowner'srelevant coverage limits/deductibles with insurance carriers, eachhomeowner's address information and other personal information, and anyother information apparent to one skilled in the art.

For example, the databases may store insurance information regardinginsurance policies of insured homeowners, such as data regarding anaccount holder, insured individuals, an insurance policy number,insurance coverage, premiums, deductibles, billing information, paymenthistory, address/location information, and the like. The database mayinclude information regarding previous insurance claims for damage, aswell as predefined rules for processing insurance claims, differenttypes of insurance coverage, and the like.

The data stored in the plurality of databases 206 may be collected andcompiled by the home sharing insurance device 212, the mobile device220, the plurality of connected home sensors 210, the home sharinginsurance subsystem 203, or by servers and subsystems within the homesharing insurance subsystem 203. In another example, one or moredatabases 206 may also include predefined rules and other information toenable the methods disclosed herein. For example, one or more databases206 may contain historical claim data, or other applicable data archivedby the insurance company (e.g., historical images of items damaged fromprevious renter-related damage, damage/severity, etc.). This data may beused, among other things, to optimize the rules and/or techniques usedin the method and systems disclosed herein.

By utilizing the features described herein, the home sharing insurancesystem 202 may provide enhanced insurance coverage for homeownersrenting out their homes, as well as customized pricing for insuringhomes during rental periods. As an example, Table 1 below provides anexample of a pricing structure generated by the home sharing insurancesystem 202 for insuring condominiums and homes that may be rented out totenants. In Table 1, the Residence Class column may represent the typeof insured homeowner renting out a home, as well as the number oftenants for a home rental. A % and B % may represent example percentagesfor primary or secondary homes or homeowners, and X %, Y %, and Z % mayrepresent example percentages which increase in ascending orderdepending on the number of weeks that a home is rented out to one ormore tenants (e.g., X<Y<Z). For example, a home that is rented out for51+ weeks may have a higher percentage (e.g., a higher insurance premiumvalue) than a home that is rented out for one or two weeks or months.

TABLE 1 Pricing structure for insuring rented out homes. Number of WeeksRented 0 8-Jan 25-Sep 26-50 51+ Residence Class Rate % Primary Base N/AN/A N/A N/A Primary, Owns Secondary −A % N/A N/A N/A N/A Secondary −B %N/A N/A N/A N/A Secondary - Seasonal −B % N/A N/A N/A N/A Rented -Portion of Primary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residence to Same Tenant Rented -Portion of Primary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residence to Multiple TenantsRented - Total Primary N/A X % X % N/A N/A Residence to Same TenantRented - Total Primary N/A X % X % N/A N/A Residence to Multiple TenantsRented - Portion of Secondary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residence to SameTenant Rented - Portion of Secondary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residence toMultiple Tenants Rented - Total Secondary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residenceto Same Tenant Rented - Total Secondary N/A X % X % Y % Z % Residence toMultiple Tenants

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method in accordancewith aspects of the present disclosure. The steps of FIG. 3 may beperformed by subsystems, application servers, and computing devices ofthe home sharing insurance system 202 (e.g., home sharing insurancesubsystem 203). One or more of the steps of FIG. 3 may be performed byexecuting a home sharing insurance program (e.g., a home sharinginsurance mobile application) and/or by operating a particularlyconfigured computing device of the home sharing insurance system 202.

The method of FIG. 3 may begin with step 301, at which the insurancesystem may receive data indicating that a homeowner is renting out ahome to one or more individuals. For example, the home sharing insurancesystem 202 may receive data indicating that the homeowner is renting outhis or her home from a mobile device 220 or a home sharing insurancedevice 212. In some cases, the data indicating that the homeowner isrenting out the home to one or more individuals may comprise anotification or documentation from the homeowner for a rental period forwhich the one or more individuals are renting the home. At step 302, thesystem may determine a value for frequency of rentals for the home basedon the data indicating that the homeowner is renting out the home. Forexample, the home sharing insurance system 202 may collect documentationfrom the mobile device 220 or home sharing insurance device 212 for eachtime the home is rented out by the homeowner over a period of time. Thehome sharing insurance system 202 may then determine a value for thefrequency of rentals by calculating the number of rentals for the homeon a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

At step 303, the system may receive monitored data for one or morefeatures of the home from a plurality of sensors over the network. Forexample, the home sharing insurance system 202 may receive monitoreddata from a plurality of connected home sensors 210, in which theconnected home sensors 210 may be configured to monitor one or morefeatures of the home. The connected home sensors 210 may include atleast one of motion sensors, water heater sensors, power sensors,moisture sensors, temperature sensors, window sensors, sump pumpsensors, heat or smoking sensing devices, presence sensors, and thelike, and the one or more features may include insured items (e.g.,appliances, devices, and the like) of the home and/or may representpersonal property of the homeowner. The monitored data from theplurality of connected home sensors 210 may indicate whether devices inthe home are operating within an expected range or, if it is outside ofan expected range or threshold, whether damage has occurred to one ormore devices.

At step 304, the system may compute an insurance premium for thehomeowner based on the value for the frequency of rentals, monitoreddata for one or more features of the home, and data regarding insurancefactors for the homeowner. For example, the calculation module 205 inthe home sharing insurance system 202 may calculate the insurancepremium for the homeowner based on varying weights for the value for thefrequency of rentals, monitored data for the one or more features of thehome, and data regarding insurance factors for the homeowner by applyingone or more algorithms. In some cases, the home sharing insurance system202 may access one or more databases 206 and parse insurance factorinformation in the one or more databases 206 to obtain a subset ofinformation that is relevant to a particular homeowner. For example, theinsurance factor information may include data regarding age, gender andnumber of years the homeowner has owned the home, credit history,condition, materials and age of the home, location of the home, and thelike. At step 305, the system may transmit the insurance premium to thehomeowner. For example, the home sharing insurance system 202 maytransmit a notification regarding the insurance premium pricing andcosts to the mobile device 220 or the home sharing insurance device 212.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method in accordancewith aspects of the present disclosure. The steps of FIG. 4 may beperformed by subsystems, application servers, and computing devices ofthe home sharing insurance system 202 (e.g., home sharing insurancesubsystem 203). One or more of the steps of FIG. 4 may be performed byexecuting a home sharing insurance program (e.g., a home sharinginsurance mobile application) and/or by operating a particularlyconfigured computing device of the home sharing insurance system 202. Insome embodiments, one or more of the steps of FIG. 4 may be performedafter the steps of FIG. 3.

The method of FIG. 4 may begin with step 401, at which the insurancesystem may receive a first plurality of photos of one or more featuresof a home from a computing device. For example, the home sharinginsurance system 202 may receive the first plurality of photos of theinsured items from a mobile device 220 or a home sharing insurancedevice 212. In some cases, the first plurality of photos may be capturedby the homeowner on a camera on the mobile device 220 or on the homesharing insurance device 212 (e.g., using sensors 225 or 215). Thecaptured photos may be transmitted from the mobile device 220 or fromthe home sharing insurance device 212 to the home sharing insurancesystem 202. At step 402, the insurance system may store the firstplurality of photos of the one or more features of the home. Forexample, the home sharing insurance system 202 may store the firstplurality of photos of the one or more features of the home in a memoryof a computing device associated with the home sharing insurance systemsubsystem 203. In another example, the home sharing insurance system 202may store the first plurality of photos of the one or more features ofthe home in one or more databases 206, in which the databases 206 may bereferred to as a “digital repository.”

At step 403, the insurance system may receive a second plurality ofphotos of one or more features of the home from a second computingdevice after a rental period has occurred or after a predeterminedperiod of time has expired. For example, the home sharing insurancesystem 202 may receive the second plurality of photos of the insureditems from the mobile device 220 or the home sharing insurance device212 after the homeowner has rented out his or her home to one or moreindividuals during a rental period. In some embodiments, the secondplurality of photos may be captured using a mobile device 220 and/orhome sharing insurance device 212 of the homeowner or of an employee ofa cleaning service, in which the cleaning service may be hired by thehomeowner to clean and maintain the property for future rentals.

At step 404, the insurance system may compare the first plurality ofphotos with the second plurality of photos to identify damages to one ormore features of the home. For example, the home sharing insurancesystem 202 may access the first plurality of photos stored in the one ormore databases 206 (e.g., the digital repository) and compare the firstplurality of photos depicting the insured items prior to rental with thesecond plurality of photos depicting the insured items after rental. Thehome sharing insurance system 202 may utilize one or more digital imageprocessing algorithms and image analysis algorithms to detectdifferences between the photos depicting the items and to identify anydamages. In some embodiments, the calculation module 205 and/or theinventory module 207 may be utilized to apply the one or more digitalimage processing algorithms (e.g., discrete cosign transform algorithms,Fourier transform algorithms, or the like) to the photos and performimage analysis of the photos, including at least one of imagecompression, filtering, image selection, image segmentation,thresholding, pixilation, or the like. Based on the image analysis, thehome sharing insurance system 202 may identify any damages to the one ormore items of the home. In some embodiments, the home sharing insurancesystem 202 may identify one or more damaged portions in the photos andmay crop or otherwise modify the photos such that only the one or moredamaged portions of the photos are saved, transmitted, and/or used forprocessing insurance claims. By saving and/or utilizing just theportions of the photos that depict the damages, the home sharinginsurance system 202 may be able to save storage space as needed forstoring the photos.

At step 405, the insurance system may initiate an insurance claim foridentified damages to the one or more features of the home. For example,the home sharing insurance system 202 may initiate an insurance claimfor the homeowner based on identifying what type of damage has occurred,based on the severity of the damage, and based on determining how muchof the damage the homeowner's insurance policy will cover. In somecases, there may be a limit to the amount of money provided tohomeowners for covering renter-related damages in the home, but the homesharing insurance system 202 may adjust the limit according to the valueof items in the home or according to the homeowner's selections and/orpreferences in his or her home insurance policy. At step 406, theinsurance system may compute an amount for the insurance claim for theidentified damages to the one or more features of the home. For example,the calculation module 205 in the home sharing insurance system 202 maycalculate an amount for the insurance claim based on the type of damageand the severity of the damage. In some embodiments, the home sharinginsurance system 202 may receive additional information associated withthe severity of damage from one or more sensors of the connected homesensors 210. For example, the connected home sensors 210 may bemonitoring devices in the home and collecting data in real-time or nearreal-time. The connected home sensors 210 may transmit data to the homesharing insurance system 202, in which the transmitted data may aid indetermining the severity of damage to one or more items in the home. Forexample, if the home sharing insurance system 202 receives data from theconnected home sensors 210 indicating that a window has been broken(e.g., from a breakage sensor monitoring one or more windows in thehome), a moisture sensor in the room with the broken window may provideadditional data indicating whether any water damage has occurred due tothe broken window (e.g., from rain, snow, etc.). In some cases, thisadditional information indicating that there is also moisture present inaddition to the window being broken may aid in indicating a severity ofthe damage and in determining an amount for the insurance claim to coverthe cost of the repair of the damage.

At step 407, the insurance system may transmit a notification of theamount of the insurance claim for the identified damages to thecomputing device. For example, the home sharing insurance system 202 maytransmit a notification regarding the initiated insurance claim and theamount for covering the damages to the mobile device 220 or the homesharing insurance device 212.

Aspects of the invention have been described in terms of illustrativeembodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications, andvariations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occurto persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of thisdisclosure. For example, one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that the steps illustrated in the illustrative figures may beperformed in other than the recited order, and that one or more stepsillustrated may be optional in accordance with aspects of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising hardware including one ormore processors and memory, the system configured to: receive, from adevice associated with an owner of a residence, data indicating that theowner is renting out the residence for a first amount of time;calculate, based on the first amount of time, a total amount of time forwhich the residence was rented out within a policy period associatedwith an insurance policy for the owner; retrieve data characterizing oneor more features of the residence; compute, by the one or moreprocessors, an insurance premium for the owner based on the total amountof time for which the residence was rented out and based on the datacharacterizing the one or more features of the residence; and transmitthe insurance premium for the owner to the device associated with theowner of the residence.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system isfurther configured to: receive a first plurality of photos of the one ormore features of the residence; store the first plurality of photos ofthe one or more features of the residence in the memory; receive asecond plurality of photos of the one or more features of the residenceafter a rental has occurred, wherein the first plurality of photos andthe second plurality of photos are different; compare, by the one ormore processors, the first plurality of photos stored in the memory withthe second plurality of photos to identify damages to the one or morefeatures of the residence; compute, by the one or more processors, anamount for the insurance claim for the identified damages to the one ormore features of the residence; and transmit, by the one or moreprocessors and to the device associated with the owner, a notificationof the amount for the insurance claim for the identified damages to theone or more features of the residence.
 3. The system of claim 2, whereinthe system is further configured to: perform, by the one or moreprocessors, image analysis of the first plurality of photos and thesecond plurality of photos using one or more image analysis algorithms.4. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more databases forstoring the data characterizing the one or more features of theresidence, wherein the one or more features of the residence compriseinsured items owned by the owner of the residence.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the computed insurance premium is further based on datacharacterizing the owner of the residence.
 6. The system of claim 1,further comprising a plurality of sensors including at least one ofmotion sensors, water heater sensors, power sensors, moisture sensors,temperature sensors, window sensors, sump pump sensors, heat or smokingsensing devices, or presence sensors, wherein the data characterizingthe one or more features of the residence is derived from data capturedby the plurality of sensors.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thepolicy period associated with the insurance policy for the owner is ayear, wherein the total amount of time for which the residence wasrented out within the policy is a number of weeks in the year.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the data characterizing the one or morefeatures of the residence comprises at least one of metrics, levels, orvalues indicating performance and quality of the one or more features ofthe residence.
 9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable mediacomprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors ofan apparatus, cause the apparatus to: receive, from a device associatedwith an owner of a residence, data indicating that the owner is rentingout the residence for a first amount of time; calculate, based on thefirst amount of time, a total amount of time for which the residence wasrented out within a policy period associated with an insurance policyfor the owner; retrieve data characterizing one or more features of theresidence; compute, by the one or more processors, an insurance premiumfor the owner based on the total amount of time for which the residencewas rented out and based on the data characterizing the one or morefeatures of the residence; and transmit the insurance premium for theowner to the device associated with the owner of the residence.
 10. Theone or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, whereinthe one or more features of the residence comprise insured items ownedby the owner of the residence.
 11. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the computed insurancepremium is further based on data characterizing the owner of theresidence.
 12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media ofclaim 9, wherein the data characterizing the one or more features of theresidence is derived from data captured by a plurality of sensors,wherein the plurality of sensors include at least one of motion sensors,water heater sensors, power sensors, moisture sensors, temperaturesensors, window sensors, sump pump sensors, heat or smoking sensingdevices, or presence sensors.
 13. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the policy period associatedwith the insurance policy for the owner is a year, wherein the totalamount of time for which the residence was rented out within the policyis a number of weeks in the year.
 14. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the data characterizing theone or more features of the residence comprises at least one of metrics,levels, or values indicating performance and quality of the one or morefeatures of the residence.
 15. A method comprising: receiving, from adevice associated with an owner of a residence, data indicating that theowner is renting out the residence for a first amount of time;calculating, based on the first amount of time, a total amount of timefor which the residence was rented out within a policy period associatedwith an insurance policy for the owner; retrieving data characterizingone or more features of the residence; computing an insurance premiumfor the owner based on the total amount of time for which the residencewas rented out and based on the data characterizing the one or morefeatures of the residence; and transmitting the insurance premium forthe owner to the device associated with the owner of the residence. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more features of theresidence comprise insured items owned by the owner of the residence.17. The method of claim 15, wherein the computed insurance premium isfurther based on data characterizing the owner of the residence.
 18. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the data characterizing the one or morefeatures of the residence is derived from data captured by a pluralityof sensors, wherein the plurality of sensors include at least one ofmotion sensors, water heater sensors, power sensors, moisture sensors,temperature sensors, window sensors, sump pump sensors, heat or smokingsensing devices, or presence sensors.
 19. The method of claim 15,wherein the policy period associated with the insurance policy for theowner is a year, wherein the total amount of time for which theresidence was rented out within the policy is a number of weeks in theyear.
 20. The method of claim 15, wherein the data characterizing theone or more features of the residence comprises at least one of metrics,levels, or values indicating performance and quality of the one or morefeatures of the residence.